Horse trainer accused of cruelty

State regulators launched an investigation into allegations that a top thoroughbred horse trainer and his assistant mistreated horses at Saratoga Race Course and another track from April through August of last year.

The New York State Gaming Commission will review about seven hours of video taken by a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that worked undercover as a hot walker at the barn of Steve Asmussen, one of racing’s most winning trainers.

PETA says Asmussen’s barn chronically drugged horses to apparently enhance their performance and mask excessive soreness and injuries last spring at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and during July and August at Saratoga. The PETA investigator captured video and sound with a hidden camera and the surveillance was provided to the gaming commission. (View PETA video here.)

“The allegations and footage provided by PETA are extremely troubling and we are fully investigating the matter,” said Robert Williams, acting executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission. “PETA has offered to assist the commission in its investigation, and we welcome such cooperation.”

PETA produced a lengthy report on what it found. It also filed several complaints in which it accuses Asmussen of employing undocumented workers and paying the PETA investigator less than minimum wage and no overtime. Conversations on the video raise the possibility that one of Asmussen’s jockeys, Ricardo Santana Jr., used a buzzer to shock horses into running faster, PETA said.

“Our goal was to really see what goes on in these stables,” PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo said Thursday.

The gaming commission on Tuesday opened its probe into allegations of “abuse and mistreatment” of thoroughbreds at Saratoga. Identified in the PETA complaint to the commission were Asmussen, Santana, assistant trainer Scott Blasi, veterinarians Joseph F. Migliacci and James Hunt. The stable continually trained and raced injured horses without giving them adequate time to recover, according to the complaints. They gave the animals daily doses of Thyrozine, Lasix and prescription drugs not because they were ill, but to enhance performance, Guillermo said.

PETA believes they found a number of violations of cruelty laws and racing and veterinarian regulations, Guillermo said. In one instance, Nehro, a horse who finished second in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, was forced to race and train on hole-ridden, chronically painful hooves that were held together with super glue and filler, PETA said. Other horses’ legs were burned with liquid nitrogen and blistered with chemical paint, purportedly to stimulate blood flow, PETA said.

“We witnessed a horse in such pain that it hurt him even to stand, thyroid and other drugs were dumped into horses’ daily feed, and horses had been blistered with chemical paint in order to stimulate healing and keep them racing,” PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a statement. “Anyone who thinks racing is ‘clean’ can now see that even at this top level, the syringe and pill bottle are the main training tools and most of the horses who make it out alive are reduced to broken wrecks.”

Asmussen, 48, could not be reached on his cell phone, and neither his attorney nor Blasi responded to requests for comment. Asmussen started training horses in 1986. He has won 6,725 out of 31,930 races for total earnings of more than $214 million.

But the trainer has faced problems before. In 2006, Asmussen paid a $2,500 fine and was suspended six months by the Louisiana Racing Commission after a filly he trained tested 750 times over the legal limit for the anesthetic mepivacaine, which can deaden pain in a horse’s legs, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International and published reports. Asmussen is presently among 10 finalists named to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame ballot. The Hall of Fame is located across from the Saratoga track on Union Avenue.

Trainer Rick Violette, the president of New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, commented on the accusations on Thursday.
“The horsemen would vehemently object to any mistreatment of horses or an attitude that would permit that to happen,” Violette said. “If conduct is shown that there was some significant mistreatment of horses, then the authorities should pursue it and take care of the culprits as they see fit.” He added that he was waiting for authorities to rule on the evidence before making a judgment.

Equine Medical Director Scott E. Palmer of the state Office of Veterinary Affairs is helping the gaming commission in its investigation.

“The behavior depicted in the undercover video and supporting materials is disturbing and disgusting,” Palmer said in a statement. “We are working to determine what happened and ensure that proper protocols are put in place to prevent such actions from taking place again.”

These big outfits are notorious for abuse they have boat loads of money to have vets on call, us little trainers or aka “little guys” have to be smart about how to train and keep horses sound and healthy by not over training and racing spacing their races and watching them to know what is be bugging them and how to correct it by rubbing and massaging warm relaxing liniments into muscles and joints such as any serious athlete, not drugs like I know what goes on in those big barns, they seem to concern themselves only the with the bottom line not the horse. A happy horse is a winning horse with a longevity, productivity and good health to retire sound.